


Reprieve

by sakurakyouko



Category: Heathers (1988), Heathers: The Musical - Murphy & O'Keefe
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Bullying, Gen, Grief/Mourning, Suicidal Thoughts, Suicide Attempt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-15
Updated: 2019-12-15
Packaged: 2021-02-27 00:53:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21808558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sakurakyouko/pseuds/sakurakyouko
Summary: Every time Heather McNamara hears her own name called from down the hall, she half-expects to turn around and see Heather Chandler turning to do the same. Heather Chandler has always been larger than life, large and in charge, so it just seems impossible that she’s gone.
Relationships: Heather Chandler & Heather Duke & Heather McNamara, Heather Chandler & Heather McNamara, Heather Duke & Heather McNamara, Heather McNamara & Veronica Sawyer
Comments: 2
Kudos: 25





	Reprieve

**Author's Note:**

> warnings: graphic description of and references to a suicide (not the POV character who dies), suicidal ideation, and a suicide attempt. there's also brief but insensitive references to bullying and an eating disorder

Every time Heather McNamara hears her own name called from down the hall, she half-expects to turn around and see Heather Chandler turning to do the same. Heather Chandler has always been larger than life, large and in charge, so it just seems impossible that she’s gone.

But Chandler’s never coming back. She killed herself, and people are already expecting Mac to go around and act like nothing’s changed. She still has to go to cheer practice and pretend there isn’t a gaping hole in her heart where her best friend should be, leaning over her shoulder to make a snide comment about some nerd sitting at the next table over in the cafeteria.

Heather Duke is still around, but she’s started to claw her way up the social ladder. It looks like she’s intent on using Mac as a rung to get where she wants to go. Mac knows payback when she sees it, payback for all the times she and Chandler made fun of Duke for… well. Anything and everything, from her quiet, bookish manner to her eagerness to please, from her weight to her difficulties holding down her lunch. Frankly, they used Duke like a doormat, and now that Chandler is out of her way, the girl in green is determined to fight back.

So it’s not like Mac doesn’t have it coming, when Duke sets out to ruin her social life after she calls into that stupid radio show. She’s never been a good person. That’s part of why she looked up to Chandler so much, while she was still alive; the girl in red knew she was a bastard and she owned it. But Chandler’s indifferent Cool Girl façade shattered with her glass coffee table when she collapsed and committed suicide by Drano daiquiri.

Mac doesn’t want a violent death like Chandler’s, ending with chemical burns down her throat and a resounding crash. No, she's never shared her friend's flair for the dramatic. She wants a reprieve from all these overwhelming emotions that bubble up inside and threaten to choke her. She just wants to go to sleep for a while.

Then Veronica comes rushing in to interrupt, because of course she does. The brunette makes Mac spit out her mom's sleeping pills on the dingy bathroom floor, and reminds her why she's bothered to stick around this long in the first place. She doesn’t want to be a statistic. She wants to matter. And she doesn’t have to be a lackey for the rest of her life, either. She can amount to more than just a part of the matched Heather set.

It might take a while for Mac to truly believe in all of that, but damn it, she’s going to try. For her own sake.

**Author's Note:**

> heather isn't mourning the jocks because they sucked send tweet


End file.
